Tension between Swindon fans and Ian Holloway with boos after defeat to Crystal Palace U21s

There was tension between Swindon fans and Ian Holloway with boos heard around the County Ground after defeat to Crystal Palace U21s.

The Robins had gone ahead thanks to Antwoine Hackford on the 23rd minute, but then Caleb Kporha levelled just before half time. Seb Williams put Palace ahead on 55 minutes, with the academy side hanging on to the win.

He said, as per BBC Radio Wiltshire and Swindon Advertiser: “There are seven players there tonight who could only play 45 minutes.

“I’ve never had that before in my life and my first team I picked yesterday with Salford in mind all of those seven would have started I only got five subs so for people to judge us on this evening I think is not fair. And I didn’t enjoy the goals we let in, but I enjoyed some of the other game.

“I thought the rest of it, I thought we’re learning how to beat people. We’ve got our youngest kid coming off bench we’ve ever had, and we get booed off. I just don’t understand.

“And if you don’t agree with me, if you think you can do what you want, I got no problem with that. But that’s just, that hurts. Really does. That’s what I’m saying.

“So… yes, we could have done better with the goal. thought someone should have fouled him. How many people did he beat? And it went under Lewis. He would normally save that. So that was a kick in the teeth at half time.

“And then the corner, they rolled it into the edge, rolled it out, rolled it across and someone didn’t do their job and get there. And he bent it in the end of the net. There was so, in the side of the net, so.

“It is what it is. So, you know, for me, I look at a lot of the positives. Hackford’s got his first goal. Those seven have come through the game. Hopefully they won’t be injured. Joe Snowden’s going to be out for the weekend because he’s got a sore groin again. So I’ve had to stick to what we’re doing to try and get over this period. And that’s not an excuse, it’s fact. So, there we go.”

SHORTENED HIGHLIGHTS:

EXTENDED HIGHLIGHTS:

Interviewer: “When you look at all the restrictions you’ve got and the team you’ve had to play, how much of a player has done to push themselves forward for your Salford thoughts?”

Holloway: “Mate, they’ve got the minutes in their legs so that’ll allow me to be able to think about playing them and putting them on the bench at least. This is what we have to do. I’ve never had a period like this, you know? Never.

“What we gonna do, turn around and blame everybody? Or we just gonna try and get on with it? I’m just being brutally honest trying to understand this but I thought it still a good game. I don’t care how old they are, they play for Crystal Palace. And that kid who beat however many of my players, and scored, that is probably why he is there, you know what I mean?

“So I know it’;s disappoint but it’s a good job I don’t think what everybody else does or some of the everybody else, because life is about being encouraged, feeling part of things and the last thing you want to do is play, be part of a game like that and people booing. I think that is pretty harsh.

“What do you think, everybody has paid their money, if they want to do that, mate i just don’t understand it after what I’ve seen.”

“Don’t sit on the fence, what do you think? Were we that poor to boo?”

The interviewer says it’s not in his nature to boo, points to maybe frustration to losing to an academy team, and defeat at York and not seeing a response from that.

On if the boos would impact 16 year old Freddie Hoare: “Freddie’s been exceptional over the last few weeks. That’s why we put him in, and he’s made his debut. So well done to him.

“I don’t like the fact that people were booing. He might have gone off and thought that might have been about him.

“Don’t you think that matters when he’s walking off the first game he’s ever played, and he’s hearing booing? What if he thinks that’s him?

“You don’t understand how it is to be a player and to want to play well for your team, and lose 2-1 to a Premier League Under-21 team.”

Speaking post match, Holloway added: “Really disappointing. Great to see some people back playing, but after 10 months gets 45 minutes, had five players who could only play 45 minutes. So,, made it difficult, but Freddy made his debut, Hackers got his first goal, but the goals we conceded, heartbreaking. Absolutely pathetic. So, one kid beats I don’t know how many people it was and goes underneath Lewis just on half time. And then they take a corner and it’s rolled right the way across the box. Nobody moves. He slots it in the bottom corner. So, take away a lot of the other good stuff we did. So, hopefully nobody will be injured and let’s move on to Saturday.

“So… I don’t like this cup, right? And what we had to do today was to get people playing some minutes in their legs so hopefully we can sort a team out for Saturday.”

Interviewer: “Yeah. I mean, these type of games usually good opportunity to maybe get some players who haven’t had the minutes so far in the season to get those minutes out on the pitch, to have any of those players do you think um put themselves in contention for Saturday?”

Holloway: They’ll be contention for being sub maybe even starting. Yeah, it’s good good to see them all out there and the team was selected on that and obviously we’ve got six loanees so we I couldn’t have Munda in that as well.

“But yeah, what can I say? We don’t like losing, but we’ve lost. So, we’ve got to learn. We got to learn how to try and win games and try and be consistent to do it. But, you know, those goals you let in like that, that’s just not good enough.”

Interviewer: “And like you touched on earlier, I mean, Hackford to get his first goal, his first start throughout the middle today, was it a good opportunity for you to be able to see him in that front striker role today?”

Holloway: “Yeah, it’s good for him to get off get 90 minutes under his belt, you know, cuz I brought him off in the first game cuz he didn’t know how to press and how to close. He’d only just come here. He’s only been here two weeks. So, it’s always great for a striker to score and he went through, their kid made a mistake, we forced that mistake and he went through and finished with a plum.

“So, it would have been nice to get to half time it 1-0 up, unfortunately we didn’t and that goal was unforgivable for me. I don’t know how many he beat and one of them should have just took him out. No way can he go through those bits and pieces. But that’s why they’re at Crystal Palace and our lot are here if you want to be realistic. But there you go.”

Interviewer: “And like you touched on as well, young Freddy making his debut, the youngest ever Swindon player to play for the first team. What have you seen with him so far to be able to give him this opportunity?”

Holloway: “Yeah, I’ve seen him play a game the other week and he made the best block I’ve ever seen. literally threw himself. If it was a grenade, it would have gone off and blown into the bits, but he didn’t care, you know. And I think that’s what our lads give us. I think we’re missing Louis at the moment. Louis Millard, he does that. Just chases and he runs. And we’ve got to remember that we’re all in this together. So, fine if you don’t if you don’t like us not winning, but you need to remember if anybody’s done well, try and encourage them. That’s how I feel. That’s what I’m going to do. That’s what my job is. Well, if we all stopped doing that, where would we be? Never mind.”

Interviewer: “And finally, Lucas Griffith Brown also getting his first start with the first team…”

Holloway: “I thought he played the other way the other week.”

Interviewer: “First start.”

Holloway: “Ah first start.”

Interviewer: “But, yeah, how good was it to be able to give him that opportunity and to see him, you know, fully embed himself?”

Holloway: “Yeah, it’s been awkward for him. He got in the first team in pre season and and now he hasn’t been in in in any first team games apart from this one and it’s a learning curve for him to go up to go back and the gap they’ve got under 21s whereas we’ve only got an under 18 so the gap is quite big so he’s got to deal with itself he hasn’t played as well lately as he was before so it’s all a learning curve but he did all right tonight.”

Before the game, he began his news conference looking ahead to the game with Crystal Palace under 21’s by reading his thoughts on defeat at York from his journal…

One fan, @horizong47, wrote: “I was right next to the dugout tonight, and being that close gave me a completely different view of the tension between a few fans and Ian at the final whistle. Look, I get the disappointment with the second half and I know everyone is frustrated after those heavy away defeats. But screaming at the manager to get out right now is totally out of line. Before people start losing their heads and shouting down a proper EFL icon, we need to look at the actual facts:A Highly Talented Youth Team: Crystal Palace U21s are packed with elite Premier League academy prospects. They are fast, sharp, and highly technical.A Peanuts Budget: We are operating on a tiny fraction of the playing budget compared to other clubs. Holloway can’t just go out and buy a quick fix. An Endless Injury List: Our injury list is as long as your arm right now, which completely ties the manager’s hands. Forced Squad Rotation: The team out there tonight was mostly a backup squad. Holloway had to follow strict rotation to protect our starters for the league. Despite all of that, we actually played really well in the first half. The drop-off in the second half was annoying to watch. Ollie is a manager who built hope in a broken squad when we were lingering at the bottom of the table. Shouting abuse at him by the dugout is just going to ruin the stability he’s trying to build. We need to save our boos strictly for the opposition, stick together, and give the guy some slack so he can focus on a plan for the away days. COYR”